Young Frankenstein review 7/26/08 matinee

[wickedpoppinsfan]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 7:51am

Instead of seeing wicked again I caught the matinee performance of Young Frankenstein. Surprisingly from what I heard from like everyone, the theatre was packed (or at least the orchestra and mezzanine) Anyway ,I would have to say that the show is doing well no, although I do miss Andrea Martin and Sutton Foster.

Roger Bart- he was great yesterday, and he never ceases to amaze me. Although I do hate it when he talks in like a screaming voice and you can barely hear him (well yesterdays performance I could barely hear him) but overall he did great.

Megan Mullally- she never stops amazing me, I'm going to miss her when shes gone, but she got the whole crowd rowdy, and up to their feet on curtain call.

Shuler Hensley- haha this guy was awesome, and I liked his new grunts that he added in.

Beth Leavel- She did great, I like Andrea Martin in the role better, but what I loved about Beth was that she put in a lot of new things to the role, although I hate how she didn't have the new outfit for puttin' on the ritz. I don't know, I got kind of like ughh why isn't she wearing the outfit (she was wearing her he vas my boyfriend outifit), so I think it didn't look right. But overall I would say that Beth's performance was good.

Fred Applegate- He was great, and what I liked about him was that he never got bored on stage, and kept going to till the curtain.

Christoper Fitzgerald- god, why isn't this guy like in a better show with a lead role, this guy was utterly, and without a doubt amazing. He's what got the crowd on their feet during curtain call. He put in different stuff in his dialogue, and he made his character funnier than the last time I saw him.

Kelly Sullivan- hmm, idk, she's alright, she didn't like really make a great Inga. Maybe I am comparing her to Sutton Foster, when I hate comparing people to original cast members, but she just didn't do it for me. Her singing voice is amazing, and she did slip up with the accent a few times, but she just like didn't do well in the acting for me. But, she'll probably get better in the next couple of weeks.


So overall it was a great performance. I was kind of going into the theatre with expectations of it being terrible, but everyone was on top of their game. The ensemble was still smiling and doing their dances perfectly, and the sets and costumes looked amazing. So overall I had a good experience, I'd rate it an 8/10.

*didn't get to stage door, since it was matinee, and no one was probably out.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 8:58am

It's hard to judge overall attendance from a weekend show. When I went on Wednesday night a couple of weeks ago, there were a lot of empty seats all over. Especially from summer tourist season.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 11:20am

They have taken to sending people in character out to Times Square to hawk ticket sales.

[wickedpoppinsfan]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 12:59pm

ya I saw that, it scared the crap out of like everyone, they used like people dressing up as frankenstein and igor.

[Patash]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 1:17pm

Sorry to sidetrack, but I just came from another board where people were venting about the insane practice of young people using "like" before everything when it has absolutely no meaning and then here it was. What does this mean, exactly?

". . . it scared the crap out of like everyone, they used like people dressing up as frankenstein and igor."

I'm curious. Does that have a different meaning from:

". . . it scared the crap out of everyone, they used people dressing up as frankenstein and igor."

I'm not sure about the first part of the sentence, but I suppose the second part is clearly saying that they didn't use people to dress up as those characters -- they used "like" people to dress up as the characters. What is "like" people -- human like apes? Mannequins?


Updated On: 7/27/08 at 01:17 PM

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 3:26pm

Glad you enjoyed the show!

[wickedpoppinsfan]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 3:57pm

Ok, that was very interesting, I'm sure I will take that up with my sophmore teacher.

[Patash]

Posted: 7/27/08 at 4:21pm

OK, sorry to pick, but if your teacher calls herself (or himself) a sophmore teacher rather than a sophomore teacher, then I doubt he/she will be aware how silly those "likes" are. But I suspect he/she IS driven as crazy by them as most people would be. So like see if she like notices or not that like anything is like wrong with your like phrasing. OK?

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 7/28/08 at 5:49am

Why do you even exist?
Updated On: 7/28/08 at 05:49 AM

[Mamie]

Posted: 7/28/08 at 1:02pm

I had only seen this show once - and that was right after it opened. I went last Saturday with my niece and I was very pleasantly surprised at how much better it was from those early days. In fact we were laughing ourselves silly through the whole thing. The theatre seemed pretty well filled up (except for the far sides of the mezz) and the rest of the audience seemed to be having as much fun as we were.

For the most part I agree with all your comments re the cast. Roger Bart was SO MUCH better than his early days. He's comfortable with the part and eases his way into each scene. (I agree about the screaming. I know he's trying to match some of Gene Wilder's manic screams in the film but he doesn't have the benefit of a studio sound man to make his words intelligible.)

I really loved seeing Beth and I got a lot more laughs out of her "he vas my boyfriend". I'm not familiar enough with the details of the show to know if her costume at the end was right or not.

The girl playing Inga (I'm sorry I don't remember her name) was very good - she just wasn't Sutton. But then who is? Those are big shoes to have to fill!

All in all the show looked real good. I was only too aware of the fact that it was filled with the summer tourist trade, but who cares? Their dollars are just as good as anybody else's.

[justafan2]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 9:45am

I saw YF again last night (my 4th time) and loved it overall. I really enjoyed Beth's performance---very over the top, but it seemed to work. I missed Sutton---Kelly was good, but.....
Shuler was not in and Jim B. was his replacement---actually quite good, but his voice wasn't as strong as Shuler (deep love). But Roger, Christopher, and Fred were just amazing-----they seem to get better and better. My face hurt from smiling when they were on----I just loved it so much. I'll miss Megan (which is why I went this week---before she leaves)---I think she puts so much into it and I actually like her voice.
Great cast.
Appeared to be a full house --- or close to it. (tuesday nite)
Updated On: 7/30/08 at 09:45 AM

[wickedpoppinsfan]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:31pm

ya I am going to miss megan, I might buy tickets for her last performance!

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 4:07pm

Great review and glad to heaR I'm not the only one who enjoy(ed) the show